WRITER Ian Blake told yesterday how he set off an airport security alert – with a haggis in his bag.

Ian was on his way from Inverness to Dublin when he fell foul of a scanner at Birmingham, where he was catching a connecting flight.

The former English teacher, from Melvaig, Wester Ross, who was taking the haggis as a gift to a Scots friend in Dublin, said: “As I was going through, security staff pulled me out of the line and said ‘We think you have a suspected plastic explosive in your luggage.’

“Then they took out the haggis and started examining it.

“When they read the labelling, they realised that it was just a sonsie haggis and I was allowed to go on my way. I think they were a bit embarrassed.”

Although airport staff were concerned about the haggis, the scanner failed to pick up Ian’s sgian dubh, the knife worn as part of Highland dress.